Look what's showing up in Tennessee mailboxes.
Gee, what colors do separate the African-American Democratic candidate from the white GOP candidate?
This slick little piece of race-baiting comes from Common Sense Ohio, the same group responsible for the recent push polling.
You really have to wonder about the polls showing Corker with such a strong lead. If Corker's doing so well, why are the wingnuts taking such extreme measures? (MSNBC just reported that Ford says USA Today will publish a poll tomorrow showing a much closer race than recent polls have indicated.)
And then there's the report of GOP internals showing the race a tie, and C.E. Petro links to a very interesting post which observes that the Corker team is no longer releasing their internals! The blogger observes that reports of Corker's sudden leap in the polls may discourage Dems from voting. And what about all those rumors of Rove paying a secret visit to Tennessee?
The Nashville Post thinks the wingnuts are freaking out because Corker is in big trouble:
In what should be sobering news to the Corker campaign -- and to media outlets that have published polls giving Corker anywhere from an 8- to 10-point lead -- Shelby County's early vote was up by 80 percent. That is Memphis, folks. It's Ford's home county, the county Democrats rely upon.
Thus we at NashvillePost.com are hestitant to believe some recent media polls when we see Memphis voting at a rate 80 percent above average. More people in Memphis voted early this time than did in 2000, when Al Gore was on the ballot for president.
Some politicos have argued that the electorate is more willing to vote early now than before because the "message has sunk in" that it will be easier and save them time. That argument could be justified if the rise in early vote participation was incremental, but not when the state is up 47 percent in turnout.
One last point on this subject, and this is the chilling realization for GOP operatives: The combined total of Hamilton, Knox, Sullivan, and Washington counties, all expected to vote Republican, barely surpasses the 142,235 number put up by Democratic Shelby County alone. . .
If Corker really was up by 8 to 10 points, it is doubtful that independent groups would be dumping inflammatory missives into Tennessee mailboxes, or that Corker would put $2 million of his own money into his campaign during its final week.
Hat tip to Josh Marshall
Harold Ford Polls Politics Bob Corker Tennessee Republicans News Democrats Race Racism
